32' hatt repower need help

[tmusvi]

I am thinking of repowering my hatteras, 1986 32' hatteras express sportfisherman with 2 cummings 6bta and zf220a trans 1.75-1 will this work well, need advice do i have to change shafts, sturts ect, whats involed. gases in it now but it also came with 3208. is the cost worth it? I put about 500hrs a year on the boat and it is the last hull ever build # 41 mabey a collectors boat.

[ohiohatteras]

I've been trying to talk myself into the same thing with my 79 36C.....only you can decide if it's worth spending about $60k give or take a few for the install.

[Maynard Rupp]

My son had a 32' Hat express with 3208s. The boat was a real dog and burned lots of fuel. He helped it some by adding more trim tabs. A friend had a 32' flybridge with gas engines and it was awesome. Just be careful to keep the weight of the engines down in these boats. There is a popular conversion to put a pair of lightweight Yanmars in the 28' Bertram. That seems more like the way to go to me. If the 32 is like the newer 36, the only difference is the engines themselves. Most everything else is set up for the diesels. Our shafts, insulation, and exhaust syatems are all the same regardless which engines were installed. Today, the engine manufacturers want larger exhausts though. This is probably because they are relying on heftier turbos to attain the horsepower and that exhaust needs to get out. The water intakes also need to be larger, but with the wedges that are in use today, this change is simple and fairly cheap. A new, larger exhaust is not cheap at all. We figure close to 90K to re-do our 36' Hat, but that would include a new 8kw diesel gen-set. Your 32 probably doesn't have a gen-set although my son's did.

[REBrueckner]

Of course its not "worth it"...boating never is...but we all do it anyway.
Rupps post says it all: weight, drive train size, exhaust size and of course fuel supply and engine room height.

In this market, great for buyers, I'd opt for a larger boat that can carry the diesel weight over a larger bottom area....

Add together the resale from you current boat plus the cost of new engines,transmissions and necessary boat modifications and see what you can buy with that $. New engine prices won't be depressed nearly as much as a used boat, so you should benefit significantly by moving up.

[Avenger]

One of our members did this exact repower. You can read all about it here:

http://www.samsmarine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6314